Sex and Religion | Page 3

seed' by a deceased husband's brother were virtuous.
The morality of fecundity is still often ardently preached by those who
adopt parts of this old code to suit their arguments.
Secondly, we have in our current codes the influences of the Pauline
and Augustine morality (which was possibly a reaction from some of
the more obviously crude results of the previous one) which advocates
the elimination of sex influence so far as possible. In line with this we
have the celibacy of the clergy, of monks, and nuns and the exaltation
of virginity above motherhood.
Priests still obey the echo of the early Christian Fathers, who, believing
the end of the world was approaching and desirable, urged the cessation
of all childbearing and condemned all sex life. Thus in present-day
Christianity there still is the conflict of diametrically opposite teachings
about our most important function, and quite young people detect the

conflict and are disturbed by it.
Thirdly, permeating our code are influences from the religions of the
ancient pagan world through Rome, in which the family and its
inheritance of property led to relations between the husband and wife
often in conflict with that which is best for each of them as individuals.
Fourthly, there is the more modern tenet, referred to by Mr. Aylmer
Maude in his Life of Tolstoy, where it is said that in the morality of sex
'what makes for the health, happiness, and efficiency of the present and
future generations is good, and what makes in the contrary direction is
evil.'
The absence of any clear-cut, nationally accepted basis of sex morality
causes not only confusion of thought but lies at the root of much
wrong-doing.
It is very important that those in charge of the young should realise this,
and by recognising the separate and sometimes conflicting strands in
our complex current codes, should warn the young against being
carried off their feet when any one of the component parts are pressed
on them by ardent but narrow-minded people.
At no period of human life on this earth, even actually before birth,
does sex lack significance.
Its manifest workings upon our daily lives, however, are wielded
through the invisible supremacy of nerve and gland over our tissues.
Though we experience the results of the balanced sex control of our
bodies, humanity has not until recently even been aware of the
existence of these interactions. Hence no vocabulary for these sex ideas
exists other than the scientific language of those who have made the
discoveries. And hence the usual national sex-inhibitions do not apply
to this aspect of sex life. Strange and illogical as , it seems to one to
whom all natural aspects of sex are pure, this particular phase alone has
been accepted as a quite legitimate subject for public discussion. In my
opinion this desirable openness about some of the inherent mysteries of
sex, which is so strikingly in contrast to the reticence and vulgarity of

our treatment of other scientific truths about sex, is very largely due to
the fact that from the first the ideas had a suitable vocabulary. Hence
newspapers do not hesitate to publish reports about the action of
hormones, the secretions of the ductless glands, of the pineal or
pituitary, nor to accept advertisements about cognate matters of the
most intricate and intimate nature in our sex lives quite calmly,
reasonably and, in my opinion, properly, although this frankness is in
marked contrast to their attitude toward other and equally important
aspects of sex physiology. When we turn to consider other facts of sex
life, and especially those experienced for centuries, we find a
shame-faced dirtiness of mind upon the subject, and that the Press
hinders seriou? efforts to enlighten the public. Here 3 see that the
absence of an acceptable vocabulary is revealed as having a great
influence on the trend of thought. For some of the basic facts or sex life,
known since the mists of antiquity, were in those days considered too
sacred or too shameful to be spoken of. Hence each generation of fresh
young people spontaneously frank with their simple enquiries about
these facts (as about all others in this world) are hushed by their elders.
If those who look on sex as sacred will not reveal its mysteries, and in
all the centuries which have passed have failed to create a sacred
vocabulary in which to initiate youth, we can scarcely be surprised that
youth turns to other sources for information. Those to whom sex is a
lewd enjoyment naturally snigger with congenial companions, and the
result is that young people hear the wanton tattle or its echoes. The
children of each generation receive in turn a strong bias, inclining them
to think of the well-known facts of sex as shameful and